USCG Advisory: Upgrade to GPS enhanced EPIRBs

May 23, 2011

When Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons (EPIRB) are
activated in emergency situations the system transmits vessel
identification information to rescuers. Traditional EPIRBs rely on
satellite Doppler Shift to identify the distress location.
There are a wide variety of Coast Guard approved EPIRBs
on the market but many do not have the most up-to-date feature: the
ability to transmit the EPIRB's GPS location.

Several recent casualty investigations have revealed that EPIRB
owners are largely unaware that rescue efforts are significantly
improved and your vessel's location transmitted more quickly and
accurately when distress signals are initiated by GPS
enhanced EPIRBs. GPS enhanced EPIRBs normally save 30 to 100
minutes in obtaining an accurate location. This is a
significant amount of time and may mean the difference between life
or death in cold water situations where the survival rate is
decreased as each minute passes. New GPS enhanced EPIRBs provide a
location accurate within 100 meters in 50 to 120 seconds. The GPS
enhanced EPIRB not only alerts immediately, but also directs
rescuers to a more exact location, allowing helicopter flight time
to be devoted to rescue operations rather than conducting search
operations.

An illustration of the effectiveness of GPS enhanced EPIRBs was the
March 23, 2008 sinking of the F/V Alaska Ranger in the Bering Sea
120 miles west of Dutch Harbor with 47 people on board.
The vessel's Category I EPIRB was not enhanced with GPS which
resulted in a delay in analyzing the data. In contrast, a
personal EPIRB carried by a fisheries observer on board was
outfitted with GPS, and it took only 11 minutes to identify that
EPIRB's distress location.

Fortunately a distress call was also made using the single
side-band radio and rescuers immediately responded. Since May 30th
2008, the Commercial Fishing Safety Advisory Committee has
recommended that all new EPIRBs installed onboard commercial
fishing vessels include an integral GPS receiver to permit
automatic inclusion of position in the distress alert.

The National Transportation Safety Board in their recent Marine
Accident Brief on the sinking of the commercial fishing vessel Lady
Mary recommended to the Federal Communication Commission that for
commercial vessels required to carry 406-MHz EPIRBs, those EPIRBs
be required to broadcast vessel position data when
activated.

This advisory is for informational purposes only and does not
relieve any domestic or international safety, operational or
material requirement. Developed by the USCG 13th District
Prevention Staff. Questions may be forwarded to
HQS-PF-fldr-G-PCA@uscg.mil.